Science Fair

Jana left early Monday morning. The little girls made a fort out of couch cushions, I was throughly embarrassed over the amount of wrappers and stuff under the cushions. Seems like yesterday Everett vacuumed the couch. The fort was epic so that helped balance out the embarrassment. The plumbing is fixed, after an ouchie bill later of course. We waited around all day for the plumber to come. It took him an hour plus to roto out the kitchen pipe. Turns out our problem is a dysfunctional sink garbage disposer. The north end of the house smells much better now. The massive amount of dishes took a couple days to sort out and eating with disposable plates for a day. I rushed to get Monday's grocery shopping done after dinner. When I came home the side gate was open. Vader did not rush out to help us unload the groceries. The kids checked upstairs and he did not respond to our calls. The kids raced around the neighborhood at 9 pm (in the rain) looking for our dog. Justin, Sara, and I drove around for 15 minutes but could not find him. We hoped someone kind found Vader. Amelia was about to post about Vader missing when he trudged down the stairs nice and dry, quite refreshed from a nap under Mia's bed. We now have current photos of the dog on all devices. 

Wednesday was Science Fair day. I bought several new bottles of glue to replace the glue used in last week's trail. The kids did not properly control for the amount of activator the first time. This time (with Mom involved) Phillip weighed the glue in each bowl to ensure equal weight of each glue. He applied 2 tsps of borax activator to each bowl and mixed for a set amount of time. The only difference was the brand of glue! Some of the glues did not even change consistency. After we recorded the results we played with the non-activated glues to make slime, each of those glues took 10+ tsps of activator to change into slime. We had glitter, clay, lotion, and hand sanitizer all over the table while we each made slimes. Josie even got her gray koala slime! That evening Phillip finished up his slideshow complete with graphs and photo collages for his class presentation the next day. Evelyn and I microwaved a bar of Ivory soap...that was so fun to play with for about 1.5 minutes before it hardened into a fluffier soap. She is going to talk about her experiment with her class next week. The kids all made crazy straws just for fun, they learned it is hard to suck hard enough to drink unless gravity is involved. 

We had a fun Activity Days this week painting rocks to brighten someone's day. The girls will hide their rocks next activity around Wilson's Nature Preserve. One girl used so much paint it took 4 days for the paint to fully dry. I sealed the rocks with clear lacquer after I decorated a few more over the weekend. That was a fun activity. The Deacon's helped Sister Titus lay down some sod in her backyard. Apparently, Phillip approached her after church last week asking if she needed help! He was delighted she said yes and gave them a job. 

The kids and I enjoyed assembling sunshine boxes for my friend Sarah (she lost her son a month ago in a tragic accident), Uncle Jonathon, and Uncle Jared. We combed the grocery stores for yellow packaged snacks and fun little happy items. Amelia helped me find stuff at Seagull Book for Sarah. Those boxes went their merry way via the postal service. Sunshine!! The best mail. The boys worked hard vacuuming out wood chips the wind blew into the lawn. The kids can't walk in certain sections of grass because of the pokey chips. Saturday the wind bursts blew the chips back into the lawn! Grrrrr. 

Amelia invited over two friends for a birthday celebration. I picked up some beading supplies for the girls to make cute earrings. They had a great time learning the basics of beading. I made 7-layer dip for their dinner. They painted cute canvases of farm animals after dinner. Phillip turned on Harry Potter for extra entertainment. Amelia made air fryer churros for dessert. The house was quiet for several hours since Ambree was also having her birthday party which the younger kids all attended. Josie came home a couple times but went back to enjoy the games and treats. Justin and I made an escape for a quick date night dinner for pizza. 

Soccer was cold and blustery Saturday morning. Phillip's team won! He had several good kicks that really benefitted his team. Everett and Evelyn's teams both tied in the end. Evelyn helped score a goal this week. Everett always plays with his heart! It's hard when his team doesn't respond the way he hopes. One more game next week than the season is over. A large cell developed over Nampa after the games. Our neighbor's heavy pavilion flipped over their fence the wind was so strong. I had 6 school photo session scheduled, most flaked out but the ones that showed up all came at exactly the same time. There was a mass of confusion and action for 10 minutes as folks snugged up in the garage while the storm raged outside. I hired my boys to help me moved river rock from the south side of the house down to a large bare patch on the east side. We filled 10 wheelbarrow loads of rock with shovels, just scraping the top layer of rocks from the side of the house and moving the rocks closer to the yard. Justin helped us level and place our new fire ring. Dustin brought home an extremely heavy end of concrete pipe, scrap left over from road work, perfect for a fire ring. The boy's paid labor will also include unloading 50 concrete border blocks and helping me lay those next week. Josie accompanied Justin and I to Home Depot for border blocks, concrete glue, and stuff for that project. We may lay more blocks in the back so the wood chips have a harder time flying into the grass. Another project for another day! Justin and I enjoyed Josie constant chattering, she is quite the character. 

Evelyn has an infection on her right butt cheek. I took her in Monday for the Dr to look at, turns out the supposed bug bite is actually an abscess formed from an infected scratch or something. A couple weeks ago the area was hot and inflamed about 3 inches across. I used topical creams and Benadryl to treat the "bite" which reduced the swelling to a one inch abscess.  She is on antibiotics to treat the infection. I think she might need to revisit the doctor next week to drain it since the daily sitz baths are not helping draw the infection out. Poor kid was totally shaken last night when I tried to squeeze the puss closer to the skin surface.